St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-05

whom are women, to protect our prop
erty, but Sh0plifting is so prevalent that
not day passes without the detection
of one or more thieves, says the New
York Sun.
'.The professional thieves, adroit as
they are, give us less trouble than the
new hands. All the notorious Shoplift-
ers are well known to our detectives,
and the moment one shows her face III
the doorway she is warned away. AS
soon as the professional finds herself
spotted she takes to the road and works
the principal cities i'll regular order. 1t
takes her several months to work the
circuit. at the end of which time she can
start all over again without much fear
of being recognized.
1.-THE expert shoplifter doesn't resort
to DISCUSSES as much as the uninitiated
would suppose. She takes a pride in
her profession, and looks upon stealing
merely as means Of livelihood. She
Is courageous to the extreme. and steals
with an audacity that is startling. When
detected she becomes logged, acts with
the indifference of a woman of the
world, looks upon the matter as one of
the fortunes of war, and never tries to
crawl out of the hole by adding lie to
her other crime. There is some salts
faction in Outwitting a foe like this,
whose life is tinged with romance. and
who will wage as fair warfare against
you as the dishonesty OF her practices
will admit.
son the other hand, the amateur
thief or kleptomaniac, or whatever you
like to call her. will resort to the mean
est and most contemplate plans to steal
your goods. If detected in the act she
will Villify you, say she is insulted,
threaten to sue and lie like Digger In
dsM. There is not a person on earth so
dear-a father, mother, a brother or
Sister-Whom she would not betray in
order to secure immunity for herself.
Often these new hands travel i'll pairs.
When caught they disgust you with
human nature by their mutual recrim-
nations.
''As for the excuses offered by shop
lifterS when brought to bay, most of
them have become so threadbare as to
be known as chestnuts. Once in a
while an ingenious crook will spring a
new fake story on us, some of which
would be convincing enough if it wasn't
for the tangible evidence. l have kept
record of all these excuses, and will
enumerate few of the common and
curious ones.
s'First, there is the fashionably
dressed woman. well connected and of
undoubted responsibility. Pilfering
with her is, no doubt more of a disease
than crime. She never steals any
thing very valuable, but picks up little
odds and ends that take her fancy, such
as tape measure, spool OF cotton, a
match safe, all odd glove, a single gar
ter, etc. You will notice that some of
these things are of no possible use or
value to her. As far as possible we
avoid bringing her failing to her notice.
The trifes she has stolen are added to
her bill and she pays it without being
conscious of having been detected.
Sometimes the friends of this class of
ShoplifterS will find out where she has
been shopping and return all the things
she brought home to see If they have all
been paid Tor.
''The richly dressed woman, who
passes as respectable, is the one who
gives us the most trouble. She always
goes in for big haul, and hauntS the
lace and silk counters. Her Stealings
are of such magnitude and her work is
done in such a bungling manner that
she is sure to be detected almost at once.
When caught and requested to step into
the examining room she bursts out in
loud and vulgar remonStrance. After
have her locked up. Then there is sure
to be hue and cry about an outrage
and that sort of thing until she is tried
and heavily fined. There are always
plenty of shyster lawyers to induce her
to bring a suit of damages against us on
the whack-up plan. These vampires try
to blackmail us into compromising the
suit, but we know enough to remain
firm.
"A very common type of the shop
litter comes from the middle walk of
life. She is generally foolish woman
whose husbands salary is not large
enough to supply her with the finery
she longs for, so she determines to steal
it. At first her pilferings are very
small, but she becomes embOldened by
success. and there is nothing too rich
for her to slip under her dress. When
discovered she is full of excuses. She
was just taking the article over to the
light, or she wanted to buy something
at another counter and uncOnSciously
kept it in her hand, or she wished TO
obtain the opinion of a friend whom she
thought she saw at the other end of the
store. or the thing got caught in her
dress in some unaccOuntable manner.
A woman of this kind is anxious to
avoid publicity, and she is ready enough
to pay the full value of the article if we
let her 90 Scot-free, after the detectives
have ScrutinlZed her so that she would
be readily recognized again.
1.-The child shOplifterS are hard to de
tect. They are precious little tots, and
become wonderfully proficient in short
time. As they are unable to secrete
many articles on their persons, they em-
ploy most of their time in picking the
satchels of the shoppers. You would
think that little ten-year-Old girl
would break down and confess every
thing upon being arrested, but they re-
main perfectly self-pOsSessed, and go
through the trying ordeal of a search
ing examination with the easy indiffer-
ence of professional. These children
are taught to steal by female Fagins,
who cOnfscate everything and whip
them numerically when they are un-
successful.
.'Most of these children are visions of
lovelineSs and innocence. A woman
once told me that she saw little girl
deliberately steal her pocketbook, but
there was such deplOring look in the
little ones marvellous eyes that she had
not the heart to accuse her.
THE contrivanceS for carrying stolen
goods on the person are models of in
genuity. A long bag Sewed to the in
side of the dress, with pocket two feet
wide, is the most common receptacle,
but Il large, hollow hustle, easy of ac-
cess, is much used, don't know how
women can store things in such Out-Of-
the-way places in public store. but
valuables have been found stuffed away
IN their hats, corsets, shoes, and stock
ings."
1T PAYS TO BE A TALL MAN.